When
individuals, organizations and lawmakers face tough economic times, humanities
program funding is generally among the first things to be considered for
spending cuts.

But
if they care about the future, it is one of the worst actions those entities
can take to trim their expenses. After all, the humanities are an investment,
not a cost.

Alabama
Humanities Foundation is not immune from the ill effects of budget remedies. As
the economy took its toll, humanities funding dwindled.

Yet,
we continue to find new ways to fund what should be a staple, not a surplus
when times are good. As executive director of the Alabama Humanities
Foundation, it was my honor to plead that very case at Humanities on the Hill
in Washington, D.C. this month.

Along
with our immediate past chair, retired Clay County Circuit Judge John
Rochester, we stressed to senators and congressmen the same point we stress in
civic arenas, business settings and social gatherings around this state.

Humanities
are the very foundation of our everyday life. It's about analysis, thinking,
learning and understanding the world around us. How can it be prudent to cut
the very programs that support those ideals?

No
one probably understands that better than Judge Rochester, who saw a rare
opportunity of national exposure come to his hometown of Ashland. A rural town
with population barely 2,000 drew more than 3,000 visitors to a Smithsonian
Institution exhibit in an old drugstore turned into a museum on the historic
courthouse square.

Because
of AHF's partnership with the Smithsonian, the national exhibit, The Way We
Worked, came to that town as part of Museum on Main Street. Imagine it.
Because of AHF, the people of a small town in rural Alabama had the opportunity
to see a cultural exhibit they would not have been able to see unless they
traveled to the nation's capital. And it certainly would not have been free!

Multiply
that by the five other towns that will have hosted the exhibit this year and
six more into 2015, and it is easy to see humanities thriving in out-of-the-way places people call home.

In
Florence and Birmingham and Mobile, at-risk children are reading with their
families at their local libraries through an evening program we sponsor called
Prime Time Family Reading. And -- as a family -- they are discussing what they
read, providing an exercise in literacy enrichment that will last them a
lifetime.

There
are AHF programs large and small, just like those above, operating in big
cities and tiny towns alike with a single purpose of "Enhancing Minds,
Enriching Lives."

It
is more than just a slogan to us. It truly does touch the lives of thousands of
people throughout our state. We see it as an investment across Alabama, one
which we proudly advocate every single day.

Related Stories

Columnists

Alabama prisons

Through a series of interactive workshops, people shared their concerns about crowded prisons, listed possible actions and identified costs and consequences. What emerged from this exercise are these three possible approaches.